I need a computer program for composing and writing music

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This topic has 26 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 10 months ago by Saul Davis Zlatkovski.

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May 3, 2007 at 5:23 pm #164006

unknown-user
Participant

Does anyone know of a program that would write my new music for the harp through the computer. I have looked at some programs that either need a midi, or only hear one note at a time. I am composing some tunes, and it takes so long to write them out.

May 3, 2007 at 5:33 pm #164007

unknown-user
Participant

In Sebelius, and I think in Fanali, you can play the notes on a keyboard to enter them into the computer, but you need a keyboard and cable to the computer.

May 3, 2007 at 6:02 pm #164008

tony-morosco
Member

Yes, Finale does this as well. I rarely do it but it works well.

May 3, 2007 at 6:31 pm #164009

wil-weten
Participant

I like Harmony Assistant: http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/harmony.htm

Nice price and

May 3, 2007 at 6:40 pm #164010

patricia-jaeger
Member

Sibelius and Encore both will play back what you have entered, all voices at once,

May 3, 2007 at 7:54 pm #164011

sherry-lenox
Participant

I think Sibelius is HARD TO LEARN. I can turn out manuscripts faster with my quill pen and India ink. It was a huge disappointment to me.

May 3, 2007 at 8:58 pm #164012

unknown-user
Participant

You can download

May 4, 2007 at 1:37 am #164013

Briggsie B. Peawiggle
Participant

I found Sibelius user friendly and easy. I guess it depends on your bent towards that sort of thing. If you learn the keyboard commands it becomes much easier.

June

May 4, 2007 at 2:27 am #164014

Jerusha Amado
Participant

Wil,

Does Harmony Assistant provide harp font notation?

May 4, 2007 at 3:54 am #164015

barbara-brundage
Participant

Finale and Sibelius are the big guns of notation programs. Very high learning curve, but very fully featured. Finale is maybe more difficult to get started with but gives you far more control over details than Sibelius.

However, both are major overkill if you aren’t going into the publishing business. As mentioned in this thread, Finale notepad is a free program that gives you basic notational capaibilities.

MusicTime Deluxe from gvox.com is another good beginning level program. Not free, but more features and more user-friendly than notepad.

It all depends on what you need to do.

However, if you are talking about playing the music in, any program is going to require a midi setup. That’s just part of the deal.

May 4, 2007 at 3:55 am #164016

barbara-brundage
Participant

>However, if you are talking about playing the music in, any program is going to require a midi setup. That’s just part of the deal.

There are several programs that put a little keyboard onscreen that you can use to type in the notes, but most of these only take input on one note at time (your mouse can only click in one place).

May 4, 2007 at 7:33 am #164017

wil-weten
Participant

Hi Jerusha,

Here http://www.myriad-online.com/en/docs/harmonydesc.htm

May 4, 2007 at 2:35 pm #164018

tony-morosco
Member

I use the Finale Allegro version. I don’t know if that is still available, but it is a very good compromise between the two. I tried notepad but found it too limited. The full Finale was a bit too much overkill since I didn’t need all the engraving options and the expansion features.

Allegro was affordable but does pretty much everything I need. I just added the Salzedo Harp fonts I ordered from Sylvia Woods. I haven’t had too much time to play around with them yet, but so far I like them.

May 7, 2007 at 6:42 pm #164019

unknown-user
Participant

Wil, I have downloaded the program you suggested. It looks interesting. Is it possible to play the harp with a microphone on it, directly into my computer with Harmony running?

May 8, 2007 at 2:01 pm #164020

David Ice
Member

I have used Sibelius and found it to be very easy, intuitive, and fast.
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